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London: Gay couple threatened with death in violent late night homophobic assault
141
Government considers watered down same-sex marriage bill to minimise Tory rebellion
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Tory MP Gerald Howarth: 'There are plenty in the aggressive homosexual community who want more than just same-sex marriage'
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France: Far right activist commits suicide in Notre Dame following legalisation of equal marriage
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Philip Hammond: 'No great demand for gay marriage and it's upsetting vast numbers of people'
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Government to consider abolishing civil partnerships or opening up to straight couples
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Norman Tebbit: David Cameron has 'f**** things up' with his equal marriage bill
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Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather tells Catholic newspaper 'I never went into politics to tackle equal marriage'
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Lib Dem Deputy Leader Simon Hughes: 'Marriage should be between one man and one woman'
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Tory MP David Burrowes: 'I'm not anti-gay; I'm just pro-marriage'
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Good on them for sticking to their guns – the book sounds interesting and i will buy it.
So who were the publishers who tried to make them change the sexual orientation of the protagonist?
Exactly. Isn’t it elementary journalism to tell us that?
You can’t blame Pink News if the authors are asked but choose not to reveal the information.
The authors have refused to name the publisher that required them to change the lead character’s sexuality.
So how can the allegation be authenticated?
How could it be authenticated if they did name the publisher? I doubt the publisher would have said “yeah, we said that; no poofs in our books, please”. They’d probably haved prevaricated and said that deciding what books to accept was a complicated business and would never be based on a single issue.
The author of this article/piece has a responsibility to his readers to ensure the story is accurate. I’m a writer, and I’ve yet to think of one publication that I write for who would accept a piece that I would write where I’d make what is a fairly damning statement without any factual evidence in support.
In my experience, it’s usually the protocol for the writer/journalist to put the allegation to the other party, and then decide on whether or not there is actually any merit/foundation in the story.
That’s how most professional writers work.
The original story from last year said that it was the agent that told the authors to amend the character. Still no names though.
That would make more sense. The idea of any mainstream publishing house instructing authors to change the sexual orientation of a main protaganist, is quite honestly, unbelievable.
Good on them, a publisher telling an author to change a fundamental part of a book is pure censorship!
I hope the book now sells by the bucketload, spawns a bunch of sequels and gets snapped up and made into a series of films.
A book to buy I think.
Hopefully other publishers will learn and get with the times.
Unfortunately it’s not an isolated instance. I’ve read many instances like this. I’m amazed and pleased they found a mainstream publisher that would put a gay character in a YA novel.
So glad the authors stuck to their guns over this attempt at censorship. Ironically the original publishers would no doubt claim that reading is an important way for young people to discover the world, and explore feelings.
I take all is true as writers said. If not… kudos for good PR among GLBT readers.
These stories always remind me of the (perhaps mythical, but nonetheless representative) Hollywood producer who said he would have loved to make a block-buster epic about the Emperor Hadrian – if only Antinous had been a girl.
“She found that less than 1% had any LGBTQ characters whatsoever, even in minor supporting roles.”
Isn’t this shockingly tragic? There is no visibility whatsoever.